Emperor Rising
by champion of the little people
Summary: A man is chosen to be a chess piece of a god and is thrust into the DC universe only he has no intention of being a hero, but an Emperor.


When I awake I had one hell of a headache. But as my vision cleared and I could comprehend my surroundings I noticed that I wasn't in my own bed or even my college dorm room.

I was in an apartment that had nothing but the bed I was laying in and a table in the center of the room. I got up from the bed and quickly began to panic worrying that someone has playing a cruel joke on me or worst kidnapped me for their own twisted purposes.

Suddenly there was a bright blue light that emitted from the table and just as quickly vanished. I turned to the table and saw a letter with my name on it. I picked it up and opened the letter as I needed answers to my situation.

_Hello Michael Hayfield _

_You likely have a lot of questions about where you are and what is going on. _

That was the understatement of the century.

_I am the Designer. I am what you would call a god of the universe. There are five others like me. You see as gods of the universe we often get pretty bored and so we decide to play certain games. One of our particular favorites is pitting mortals against each other in cosmic games. We call it the Great Game. Each of us chooses a mortal being to be our champion and we place them in a completely different universe from their own and let them…explore. _

_The universe that I've placed you is one that you would be familiar with, the Justice League cartoon universe. Although it technically won't become the "Justice League" universe for another seven years. It is the universe that you and all of the other champions will be placed in for the Great Game. _

_Off course I wasn't going to leave my champion completely defenseless. I have given you two gifts. The first is an A.I. named Vertex programmed with all the technical knowledge of that universe. Now I don't want to make things too easy for you so your second gift which is a superpower won't come until your sixth year in this universe. _

_I have given you all the help I can as my champion and don't think to inform others of the Great Game. If you do the consequences will be…unpleasant. _

_Welcome to the Great Game._

I sat down on the bed after finishing the letter. I glanced at the metal bracelet on my wrist and thought about my situation.

I was in an entirely different universe.

I was cut from my previous life with no hope of getting back, not that I wanted to as I didn't have any living family members to worry about me and few friends.

I was going to get superpowers and a chance to be something here, a fresh start.

I was going to take it.

The main question was how I was going to take it. I had no desire for a normal boring existence. I wanted power beyond what most people ever gained in their entire lives. There was just the matter of how I would obtain that power.

I had no idea what I was supposed to do to win the Great Game but I had an idea of what I _could _do. I had always wanted to have control and ruling an empire over all of earth would be great. I'm not a fool of course I know that I would be opposed by virtually everyone and that it would be a hard road but I loved a challenge. This earth was almost always in danger and I could led it out of the darkness and give freedom and protection for all. Everyone would be much better off when I rule everything. The question was how I would do it all.

I could go the supervillain route but that required me being completely on my own with no one that could be truly relied upon. I would also have to kill and steal everything I needed and threaten people to do what I wanted. Most of all I would have to combat the various law enforcement agencies and the superheroes of the justice league. I wasn't convinced I could take on the likes of Batman and Superman. The possibility of going to prison for the rest of my life wasn't something I wanted for myself.

On the other hand I could travel the hero route. The benefits included having superhuman and skilled allies. I would also get access to the resources of the justice league and its members. I could get special training. The downside was that I would have people trying to kill or torture me such as governments and supervillains but that was a risk regardless.

I would be someone in between. I wouldn't dress in a colorful costume and go fight crime nor would I kill everyone on some psychotic whim. I would be an emperor behind the scenes. Now that I had my goal in mind and a way about doing it I needed to fit in the environment.

A huge future problem was the other champions. I was going to have to deal with five other champions that I knew nothing about. As I thought to myself the dc universe was full of superpowers, advanced technology, magic and martial arts training that by themselves were dangerous enough but combined could make someone invincible. I would gain as many superpowers as I could for myself. The DC universe was an incredibly dangerous place and I needed power to survive and take on the other champions when the time came.

That was for the future.

The first thing I needed to do was to establish an identity for myself, one that would stand up to intensive examinations from the government. I couldn't just appear on the scene with advanced technology too soon as it would raise too many questions that I couldn't answer without ending up in a government lab as a lab rat. Lex Luthor may be able to get away with advanced supersuits but a random individual from the streets couldn't do that. So I had to start from the bottom and work myself up the ladder.

I got off the bed and noticed immediately I was wearing the same clothes I wore the day including my shoes before even when I remember taking them off. It must have been the Designer. I really hoped he simply waved his hand rather than physically change me.

I walked over to the door and went out. I noticed a window to my left and looked outside. I was in a city and it looked like any other city with high skyscrapers and busy streets expect for the big sign that said welcome to Bludhaven. Bludhaven, if I remember correctly would become the city of nightwing and was the sister city of Gotham I thought to myself as I walked back into the room. A part of me had still hoped that this was all a dream but it wasn't and I had to accept that.

It was time to get down to business.

"Vertex?"

That was a moment of silence then a response

"_Yes Sir_"

"Vertex are you capable of access the internet?"

"_Yes Sir"_

Perfect for me.

I needed resources of my own. I had Vertex create a bank account for myself in Switzerland as it was the best place I could hide a fortune from unwanted eyes. I had Vertex steal money from thousands of bank accounts in the United States, Great Britain, China, Russia, Japan and France which altogether amounted to 1.3 billion dollars. The Bank's president was surprised that a wealthy American would put so much money with his bank and a senior executive deal with me from that point even though we never meet in person. As I was living in America the executive transferred some of the money upon my request into another account with a branch of the bank in New York so I could access it.

I also looked up the status of the world. Superheroes such as superman were already well-known while batman as still a myth. No justice league had formed yet which was good news for me. I could still fly under the radar for a time.

As it turned out it was quite easy for Vertex to create a complete identity for me. I was suddenly Michael Hayfield, a young multi-millionaire whose parents had both recently died in a car crash. It only took Vertex two minutes to upload the prefabricated identity into databases all over the country including schools and various other institutions.

Once my identity and lab were finally established it became time for me to create my company. I used the money from the Swiss bank to rent a small office complex for a three year lease which cost me almost $600k. I used a further four million hiring scientists and buying lab equipment of the highest caliber. Of course, I gave the scientists some work that I could later show as work of the lab. After a couple weeks my first product was ready.

My lab announced the creation of a new alloy called Nereium which was unlike anything the world had ever seen before. Nereium with its incredibly high strength above that of titanium and excellent tensile strength without the need for high density or weight made it an ideal metal for vehicles that used a lot of fuel. Nereium had attracted a lot of attention from construction companies and the government who wanted to use my product. In six months I had achieved revenue of 30 million dollars and a profit of 18 million dollars, just from construction companies who I sold Nereium too.

This success created a flood of offers from other companies including LexCorp and Wayne Industries that wanted the "recipe" to Nereium but I said no as I didn't want anyone else to produce Nereium other than myself. I used the profits from the Nereium sales I purchased a large piece of land on the outskirts of the city and began construction of what would become the future headquarters of Hayfield Industries. By the end of the year it was complete and I announced the creation of my company, Hayfield industries.

…..

The next five years only saw Hayfield industries rise to one of the largest corporations on the planet.

I created Hayfield Pharmaceutical which released groundbreaking cures for malaria and various hepatitides. Hayfield Medical also released a drug that greatly reduced lung cancer cells. I gave cures for all types of diseases ranging from cancer to rare ones such Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis or CIPA.

I later established Hayfield Defense Technologies and Hayfield Munitions, both of which were under the control of Hayfield Industries. Hayfield Defense Technologies created "fast heals", nanobots that can be inserted into the body and heal the injuries of the individual. Hayfield Munitions produced the X-1 tank that was faster, better armored, and packed more of a punch than any other tank in the work. When I had meetings with the heads of every major military force on the planet I knew I had power.

…..

From the very beginning I had three pet projects for myself that would have an important part in my future plans.

The first was the establishment of HMF or Hayfield Military Firm. It was to be a private military company under Hayfield Industries offering security management and giving law enforcement training, logistics, close quarter training, and security services to the highest bidder. The world saw it as just another private company hiring security but its true purpose was to in the future become my own private army. It was why I only gave the militaries I dealt business with slightly upgraded versions of conventional weapons. I was saving the truly great things such as fully functional laser weapons for later. If a private military company appeared with weapons beyond what any nation was equipped with then the governments of the world would destroy them.

The second was project uplift and an important one. Ancient aliens had once experimented on primitive humanity changing a race that could have been as powerful as Kryptonians or Daxamites into regular humans with only a select few humans capable of developing metahuman powers. The purpose of the project was to undo that damage. If it worked I could be as powerful as superman or better yet have an entire army of superman at my command. Off course I wasn't going to allow those new superhumans to exist without some means of protecting myself if that turned on me.

The third project was project GOD. The project focused entirely on giving multiple superpowers to regular humans. It would entirely be maintained by Vertex with the only access to me located at the top of Hayfield Industries headquarters.

…..

By the end of the fourth year I was high up on the list of the world's top billionaires and had obtained tremendous influence in the world enough to where I could pick up a phone and people would give new information to me in exchange for money, political support, or some future favor.

It was by that method I found out where J'onn J'onzz aka Martain Manhunter was being held captive.


End file.
